ACLU investigates complaints of wrong eye drops used on Los Angeles County inmates

The ACLU is investigating the treatment of visually impaired inmates inside the Twin Towers Jail after complaints the medical staff allegedly used the wrong eye drops.

“My vision started becoming very blurry, like I was walking in a white cloud. I was taking these eye drops for a while,” said one inmate who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity. The inmate, 50, has since been released after serving nearly two months begiing in January for a parole violation.

“There were a lot of guys in the unit complaining that the eye drops were buing their eyes,” he said. “I felt my eyes getting worse.”

Another inmate, Ronald Woods, said he saw medical staff giving visually impaired inmates the wrong eye drops. Woods, who is hearing impaired, said he is housed in the same unit with those who have visual problems.

“What I saw was them have the wrong medicine with the wrong label and they were giving the wrong eye drops and wrong eye care to the wrong inmates,” Woods said in a telephone conversation with the Daily News.

“We have become aware of these complaints,” said Peter Eliasberg, legal director for the Southe Califoia ACLU. “We’re conceed with them and are looking into it.”

A spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said in a statement that the department has not been made aware of the inmate’s complaints or conces by the ACLU about appropriate medication. She said there was no indication that the visually impaired inmate who spoke to the Daily News made any complaints pertaining to medication nor is there any record of any ACLU complaints.

“The Sheriff’s Department is deeply committed to providing the utmost care to all those incarcerated,” according to the statement. “There are inmate grievance systems in place inside the jails that are readily available to the inmate population.”